


In the Shadow Of

by Aly_H



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Apprentice life, Circle Mages, Circle of Magi, Circle of Magi Culture and Customs, Cousins, Gen, Mages (Dragon Age), Multiple Wardens (Dragon Age), Originally Posted on Tumblr, Studying, Tumblr Prompt, other people's ocs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-09-07 03:52:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16846600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aly_H/pseuds/Aly_H
Summary: Tumblr prompt: “ Do you think you can teach me that? ”While trying to practice his magic and study like he's supposed to the apprentice mage Falcon Surana is pestered by his cousin, Percy, about what he's doing when Percy should be attending the lessons on healing magics.





	In the Shadow Of

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hoehoehoelt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hoehoehoelt/gifts).



> Percy Surana belongs to Hoehoehoelt, while Falcon Surana is mine.

Falcon wasn’t sure the picture in _Ferelden: A History_ was accurate. The book was propped on end and open to the page displaying Fort Drakon so he could reference it. The Fort Drakon he remembered vaguely from over the walls of the alienage and the marketplace rooftops was larger, more sinister than the book showed.

Still, he furrowed his brow and focused on shaping the ice growing beneath his fingertips into the delicate shapes to mirror the artist’s rendering.

_You need to learn control_ , the First Enchanter had said whilst sitting him at the table to practice by himself. Constructing these delicate, miniature buildings of ice was meant to improve his control and focus as well as make him more used to using ‘small magics’.

Most the apprentices his age were in the classroom just off the library – immediately behind his table – practicing healing magic.

He’d been removed from the Creation class after the Templar recruit that had volunteered to be practiced on (they often had an assortment of bruises and the like from their own training) had gotten hypothermia. Mild, but still.

_Atypical Magical Expression – War Mage Classification_

The new status with the Circle had been made official in a hushed meeting between the First Enchanter and the Knight-Commander. He’d sat outside the door as he’d been instructed to, straining to hear.

Not that he didn’t know what the label meant. It meant his magic didn’t work like it was supposed to. That he was dangerous, more likely to become a threat in the Chantry’s eyes than even a normal mage. It was why his lessons had changed and he now took lessons with the First Enchanter after the noon meal instead of with his fellow apprentices. There were a handful of others in the Tower who were like that too, but not many.

Magic made them dangerous, and unpredictable, and magic that didn’t behave like it was supposed?

The spell surged beneath his hands and the half constructed fortress twisted, developing threatening needle sharp points and tortured vines of smoking frost before he managed to end the magic feeding its growth.

A foot tall and clearly _not_ a building he glared at it in frustration.

“Do you think you can teach me that?” the voice just behind his shoulder made him jump from his skin.

He turned and glared at its owner.

Percy Surana. The other elf was from Denerim too – one of his cousins, actually (though that didn’t say much as he had quite a few). And Percy had come to the Circle much later than he had, he hadn’t even remembered the other boy from the foggy recollections he _did_ still have of the city that he’d clung to against the passage of time so desperately.

“No,” he said shortly before pointing at the open classroom door, a scowl written across his face. “You’re supposed to be in _there_.”

_Percy_ could heal.

The other’s green eyes widened a fraction and there was a tremble in his lower lip. He was going to start crying. Again.

Guilt pricked at him as he looked down – away. It wasn’t Percy’s fault the quieter Surana felt overshadowed. Certainly wasn’t his fault that Falcon’s magic was twisted the way it was. And he couldn’t have known how many times since his arrival Jowan had picked the seemingly more cheery Surana over the one that he had grown up in the Tower with.

“…sorry,” he mumbled. “I can’t do it right yet either, so I couldn’t show you how to.”

Falcon didn’t want to take his idiotic jealousies out on the other. The Circle was bad enough without making life harder on other apprentices.

Percy bit the inside of his cheek, seemingly willing the tears away before he said, “It’s pretty though.”

He raised a skeptical brow at the twisted monstrosity that had been meant to be a tiny building. It looked like a pissed off bramble bush and a badger got into a fight and the bush _ate_ the badger.

He shook his head and swept the toppled the ruined tower into the bucket of half-melted leavings from his previous attempts.

Unperturbed by the lack of agreement Percy had started flipping through the book until he found a picture of a mabari. “Try this one,” he suggested with a smile.

“I can-” he stopped himself seeing the smile. He could _do_ dogs just fine, but hadn’t ever done one very detailed. “Fine.”

He turned back towards the table and did his best to ignore Percy watching over his shoulder as he focused on the mabari and what it should look like. (Not that he’d ever seen one with his own eyes – the Templars kept scent hounds not the fierce Ferelden war breed and mabari didn’t exactly wander the alienage either.)

When he opened his eyes again he had the pleasant surprise to see the tiny mabari staring back at him. An icy snarl just like in the picture. It looked almost life-like except for the blue-ice tint…

“I’m going to show Jowan,” Percy decided plucking up the hound.

It was too small for the assignment – and definitely not a building like he’d been told to make – so Falcon just nodded and waved Percy off as he slipped back into the classroom.

He gave a slight smile as he turned back to his stack of books, selecting a different one this time.

“ _Antiva City: The Seaside Jewel_ ,” he murmured to himself before flipping it open to look through the illustrations for something he could copy.


End file.
